General Electric Company

Other

George Ernest Reluzco

Norman Arnold Turnquist

Osman Saim Dinc

Christopher Edward Wolfe

Robert Harold Cromer

Rong-Shi Paul Chiu

David Robert Skinner

Kenneth James Robertson

Kenneth Elmer Robbins

Maurice David Fournier

Daniel Richard Cornell

Bijan Omidvar

Bharat S Bagepalli

John Francis Nolan

Donald E Woodmansee

Frederick George Baily

Thomas Joseph Farineau

James Rollins Maughan

David Alan Caruso

Ziqiang Hu

Wu-Yang Tseng

Lawrence Donald Willey

Raymond Edward Chupp

Victor John Knorowski

Ming Zhou

Lawrence Edward Rentz

Thomas Patrick Russo

Martin Francis O'Connor

Dennis Roger Ahl

Alexander Morson

Kenneth Lorenzo Parks

James Louis Lawen, Jr

Gayle Hobbs Goetze

David C Gonyea

Hui Kuang

John Patrick McGrane

John Augustus Halbohm

Paul L Adamkoski

Robert Hugh Johnson

Robert Blair Wilson

Douglas Carl Colwell

An insert assembly is provided for a rotary machine wherein the rotary machine comprises a rotor and a casing. The rotor comprises a generally longitudinally-extending axis. The casing is generally coaxially aligned with the axis. The casing circumferentially surrounds and is radially spaced apart from the rotor. The insert assembly comprises a channel circumferentially disposed on the rotor and an insert circumferentially disposed in such channel such that the insert assembly is configured to thermally isolate frictional heat from the rotor to the insert.

Rotor insert assembly and method of retrofitting

A steam turbine wheel has a male dovetail projecting about its peripheral margin and a gap in the margin. Buckets having bases with complementary female dovetails are disposed in the gap and register with the male dovetail of the wheel, enabling the buckets to slide about the wheel into positions stacking the bases of the buckets against one another. The final three buckets including a closure bucket are disposed about the wheel margin with two buckets straddling the closure bucket secured to the wheel margin by the dovetails. The closure bucket is secured to the straddling buckets by axially extending pins. The closure and straddling buckets, as well as the pins, are formed of materials having a higher creep rupture strength than the materials forming the remaining buckets, enhancing the capability of the closure bucket to withstand high temperature and stresses over time without creep.

Steam turbine high strength tangential entry closure bucket and retrofitting methods therefor

A multiple hook dovetail connection for connecting a rotor wheel and a bucket of a turbine rotor that permits the use of wider vanes at the ends of the buckets without changing the size of the wheel and the other existing components of the turbine. The dovetail connection comprises a male dovetail component and a female dovetail component. The male dovetail component includes first and second hooks. Each of the hooks includes a crush surface, a neck and an angle formed between the crush surface and the neck. These hooks are dimensioned in accordance with at least one of the included tables.

Bucket and wheel dovetail connection for turbine rotors

A multiple hook dovetail connection for connecting a rotor wheel and a bucket for a turbine rotor that permits the use of wider vanes at the ends of the buckets without changing the size of the wheel and the other existing components of the turbine. The dovetail connection comprises a male dovetail component and a female dovetail component. The male dovetail component includes a plurality of hooks. Each of the hooks includes a crush surface, a neck and an angle formed between the crush surface and the neck. These books are dimensioned in accordance with at least one of the included tables.

A turbine closure bucket adapted to complete assembly of a row of tangential entry buckets on a rotor wheel includes an airfoil portion and a mounting portion for mounting the bucket to a turbine wheel. The mounting portion has front and back faces, with weight reduction cavities formed internally in the front and back faces. Externally, the front and back faces of the closure bucket are substantially identical to front and back faces of adjacent buckets in the row.

Low windage loss, light weight closure bucket design and related method

A brush seal assembly is radially and axially repositionable relative to stationary and rotating components. Shim packs whose thickness can be reduced by peeling adhesively attached foil layers from the shim packs are used to provide both axial and radial repositioning. In another form, a plurality of set screws may be threaded into a mounting member for the brush seal assembly to controllably space the brush seal from the rotating component. In a further form, an eccentric cam is rotated to reposition the brush seal assembly radially inwardly or outwardly with shim packs being used to reposition the brush seal in an axial direction.

Repositionable brush seal for turbomachinery

A seal arrangement for a rotary machine, such as a turbine, includes a main seal segment such as a labyrinth seal segment, a brush seal segment disposed in a slot in the main seal segment and having a layer of bristles secured between upstream and downstream plates of the brush seal segment, and at least one passage radially formed through the main seal segment to communicate a balancing pressure from a pressure source located exteriorly of an outer periphery of the main seal segment to a cavity defined in the downstream plate of the brush seal segment at a downstream side of the layer of bristles of the brush seal segment.

Seal arrangement for a rotary machine such as a turbine

A rotor shaft of a steam turbine is provided with a dovetail-shaped groove. A plurality of inserts are received in the groove through an entry slot at a predetermined circumferential location. Each insert has a sealing surface which, when all inserts are disposed in the groove, form a continuous sealing surface about the rotor shaft. Pins are employed to retain the final insert and, hence, all inserts in the groove by connecting the final insert either to the rotor shaft or to adjacent inserts. In this manner, heat generated by the brush seal bristles bearing on proud portions of the rotor sealing surface is substantially uniformly distributed about the inserts prior to any heat transfer to the rotor. To the extent heat is transferred to the rotor, the temperature distribution is substantially uniform whereby bowing of the rotor due to differential circumferential heating by brush seal contact with proud portions of the rotor is avoided.

Rub-tolerant brush seal for turbine rotors and methods of installation

A method for overhauling a steam turbine to increase its power without increasing its overall length. Existing seal assemblies containing seals other than brush seals are replaced with longitudinally-shorter replacement seal assemblies having only brush seals. An existing turbine section, such as a high-pressure turbine section, is replaced with a longitudinally-longer replacement turbine section having additional stages (i.e., additional rows of rotating buckets or blades).

Method for overhauling a steam turbine to increase its power

Circumferentially extending sealing segments (,) are disposed about a rotary component (,) and have seal face (,) carrying a plurality of labyrinth seal teeth (,) and a brush seal (,). The segments are movable between large and small clearance positions relative to the rotor at start-up and steady-state operating conditions, respectively. In one form, springs (,) bias the segments radially outwardly at start-up and steam pressure displaces the segments to the small clearance positions at steady-state operations. In a further embodiment, springs bias the segment for movement to the small clearance position, the extent of movement being determined by thermal expansion of centering rings mounting the segments to the stationary components.

Positive biased packing ring brush seal combination

A turbine brush seal protection device includes an annular substrate having an outer periphery and defining a slot open at the outer periphery. The slot is for receiving a portion of an annular brush seal of a gas turbine subassembly during installation of a gas turbine and such that the annular substrate at least partially covers the annular brush seal of the gas turbine subassembly. The annular substrate at the outer periphery and within the slot thereof is removably mounted to a stationary portion of the gas turbine subassembly. A turbine brush seal protection method includes the steps of providing the annular substrate, placing the annular substrate over a portion of an annular brush seal of a gas turbine subassembly such that the seal portion is inside the slot of the annular substrate during installation of a gas turbine and the annular substrate at least partially covers the annular brush seal of the gas turbine subassembly, mounting the annular substrate at the outer periphery and within the slot thereof to a stationary portion of the gas turbine subassembly, and removing the annular substrate from the stationary portion of the gas turbine subassembly before completion of installation of the gas turbine subassembly.

Turbine brush seal protection device and method

A self-centering brush seal is disposed in an annular groove formed in a stationary component about a rotatable component, the stationary and rotatable components having a common axis. The brush seal includes a plurality of bristles projecting into sealing engagement with the rotating component. The brush seal has a radial clearance in the groove enabling the brush seal for free-floating radial excursions within the groove to maintain concentricity with the rotary component notwithstanding deviation of the axis of rotation of the rotating component relative to the axis of the fixed component. In another form, the brush seal comprises a plurality of arcuate segments having a helical coil spring biasing the segments for radial movement enabling the tips of the bristles to seal against the rotatable component. In a further embodiment, leaf springs bias each segment to maintain its bristles in engagement with the rotatable component. In a still further embodiment, the seal segments are pressure balanced in a radial direction with an O-ring seal sealing high and low pressure regions on opposite sides of the segments.

Self-centering brush seal

A seal assembly and a rotary machine, such as a steam turbine, containing such seal. A stator circumferentially surrounds a row of rotor blades. The stator includes an upstream tooth-seal region, a downstream brush-seal region, and an intervening fluid expansion chamber all radially near the blade tips. Debris in the fluid stream is broken down into smaller particles by the tooth-seal region, and the smaller particles are slowed down by the fluid expansion chamber such that minimal damage is caused to the downstream bristles in the brush seal region.

Seal assembly and rotary machine containing such seal

A brush seal segment useful, when circumferentially arrayed with other such segments, to seal the gap between a rotor and a surrounding casing of a rotary machine such as a steam turbine. An annular backing plate has a rim radially-inwardly bounding together upstream-facing and downstream-facing surfaces. Canted bristles abut the upstream-facing surface. The rim is designed to allow the bristles to recover from a rotor rub. In one design, the rim acts as a labyrinth-seal tooth and is shaped to deform, under a radial force, longitudinally away from the upstream-facing surface. In another design, the rim has a more-inwardly projecting second portion near a radially-aligned edge, and only this second portion acts as a labyrinth-seal tooth.

Brush seal segment

A steam turbine having a shaft and a first (e.g., high-pressure) turbine section. A first embodiment also includes a first bearing longitudinally spaced apart from the first turbine section and further includes a first brush-seal assembly, having bristles, longitudinally positioned between the first turbine section and the first bearing and radially positioned proximate the shaft. The steam turbine is devoid of any backup seal to the bristles. In a second embodiment, a second brush seal assembly is positioned between the first and second (e.g., intermediate-pressure) turbine sections which lack any intervening bearing.

Growing community of inventors

Schenectady, NY, United States of America

George Ernest Reluzco